1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to connectors. More particularly, the present invention relates to a raised Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) connector for high-density mounting on a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
Computers advantageously enable file sharing, the creation of electronic documents, the use of application specific software, and electronic commerce through the Internet and other computer networks. Typically, each computer has one or more storage peripherals. For example, the most common type of storage peripheral is a rotating media storage device (RMSD), such as a disk drive (e.g. a hard disk drive). In particular, host server computer systems that provide services to multiple user computers are increasingly utilizing more and more disk drives to increase the amount of data that can be accessed.
Multiple disk drives are typically connected to a host computer system through a multi-port printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) that includes multiple interface connectors for the transfer of commands, status and data. The host computer accesses the disk drives and reads data from the disk drives and/or saves data to the disk drives. The host computer is typically connected to disk drives via PCB connectors, cable connectors, cables, disk drive connectors, etc. For compatibility, the connectors and interface protocol are standardized. Accordingly, the PCB connector, cable connector, cable, and disk drive connector should comply with the same interface standard. There are several disk drive interface standards, e.g., Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) that have become common in the last decade.
However, disk drives are now being designed to comply with a newer standard, generally referred to as the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) standard, which is the standard presently favored for newer computers. The SATA standard is being  promulgated by the Serial ATA Working Group and is specifically referred to as the Serial ATA: High Speed Serialized AT Attachment specification or Serial ATA standard 1.0. The SATA specification defines various general standards for SATA compatible cable connectors, SATA compatible cables, and SATA compatible PCB and disk drive connectors.
The SATA PCB connector defined in the SATA specification for data transfer basically specifies a male type connector including an insulated housing having a blade connector for supporting an electrical contact arrangement configured for data signals and two board locks fixed to the housing for attaching the PCB connector to a PCB. Further, the SATA PCB connector defined in the SATA specification sets forth that the housing includes two opposite side walls with a guide slot in one of the two opposite side walls, these side walls defining a cable connector receiving area. The guide slot aids in guiding a cable connector to mate with the blade connector of the PCB connector. The SATA specification similarly describes a SATA cable connector that is a female type connector having a receiving area with a suitable electrical contact arrangement configured to mate with the male blade connector of the SATA PCB connector.
Unfortunately, host side SATA specified male blade PCB connectors, when mounted to a Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) board (typically having a standard 0.062 inch thickness), do not allow for SATA cable connectors to be connected to SATA PCB connectors mounted in opposing relation on the top and bottom of the PCI board, respectively. The width of the SATA cable connector's molded housing is to large to allow two SATA cable connectors to be mated with two standard SATA PCB connector's mounted in opposing relation to one another (i.e. one on the top and one the bottom).
A previous attempt, illustrated in FIG. 1, has been made to solve this problem; however, as will be discussed, this prior attempt suffers from some deficiencies. As shown in FIG. 1, a prior configuration 1, utilizes a pair of standard SATA PCB connectors 3 mounted in opposing relation to one another on the top and bottom of a PCB 2, respectively, with an interstitial board 5 mounted between each of the standard SATA PCB connectors 3 and the PCB 2 (e.g. a PCI board), respectively. The interstitial board 5 provides enough height for each of the SATA PCB connectors 3 so that enough clearance is provided to allow  a pair of SATA cable connectors 7 to be mounted to two opposed SATA PCB connectors, which utilize the interstitial boards 5.
Unfortunately, the use of the interstitial board 5, as part of this prior configuration 1, creates a few drawbacks. Particularly, the interstitial board 5 is subject to thermal expansion, which may result in the breaking of solder joints. Further, the leads from the electrical contacts of the electrical contact arrangement of the blade connector are routed along the interstitial board 5 subjecting the leads to the thermal expansion of the interstitial board 5 and possible discontinuities and breakage. Moreover, there is nothing to control the impedances in the interstitial board as data signals travel from the SATA PCB connector to the PCI board. 